1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interrupt-handling-mode determining method of an embedded operating system kernel, and more particularly, to a method for providing a better response property by improving an interrupt handling process of a Linux kernel in an embedded operating system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An embedded system means a system capable of being effectively controlled since it is designed by installing a microprocessor serving as a brain in a mechanical or electric apparatus. That is, an embedded system means an apparatus that reads apparatus operating software from a built-in chip having the software, not from a disk, unlike a computer. Currently, portable phones, PDAs, digital TV sets, game machines, etc., are representative embedded systems.
These systems traditionally operate by using dedicated programs without operating systems, or operate by using simple operating systems and application programs.
The above-mentioned embedded systems increasingly require operating systems providing the latest technologies, rather than existing simple operating systems. In particular, the latest technologies are required for TCP/IP communication protocols on Internet, support of 32-bit high-speed CPU, etc.
Due to the above requirements, embedded system developers have adapted a Linux operating system as an embedded operating system that is economical and easily usable. This is because the Linux operating system can be freely modified and distributed according to GPL (GNU Public License) and has all functions required for modern operating systems.
Meanwhile, in order to improve an interrupt processing method regardless of characteristics of an ARM architecture, an embedded Linux kernel according to the related art uses an interrupt threading scheme to minimize an overhead during an interrupt process and adapts a scheme for improving a response property by expanding a region acquirable by prior occupation.
In other words, the embedded Linux kernel according to the related art executes kernel threads corresponding to individual IRQs (Internet requests) when the corresponding kernel is booted up. When interrupt occurs, an interrupt service routine (ISR) of the kernel is configured to perform a minimal process and to process most work in kernel threads corresponding to the individual interrupts.
As described above, the embedded Linux kernel according to the related art process interrupts by using only an IRQ (Internet request) mode.